Starting next week, a select number of Newmarket residents will be randomly chosen to participate in a telephone survey that will help the Town gain a better understanding of their home energy efficiency needs as part of the development of the Newmarket Energy Efficiency Retrofit (NEER) Business Plan.
"Newmarket has always been a leader in environmental sustainability and even more so when we adopted the Community Energy Plan in 2016," says Mayor John Taylor. "We are now ready to take this one step further by engaging residents in order to gauge the interest from the community on home energy retrofits, with the goal of creating a sustainable community whose energy future is efficient, secure, reliable and environmentally progressive. I encourage all residents to get involved and provide their feedback to enable us to continue to meet our Community Energy Plan targets and further our work with NEER."
Feedback gathered from the telephone survey will be used to inform the NEER Business Plan and the design of the program that aims to support residents in reducing their Greenhouse Gas Emissions, while providing co-benefits of improved home comfort, increased home values and reduced energy costs. Findings will also help the Town assess opportunities in the future to improve energy efficiency as outlined in the Town's Community Energy Plan (CEP). The NEER Program once established, aims to provide low-interest loans to homeowners in order to finance residential energy efficiency retrofits. This engagement will take place in phases, with the first phase involving a telephone survey for a select number of residents, and the second phase focused on gathering input from all residents through an online survey. Both surveys will focus on general housing questions, renovation history and future intentions, financing questions and more.
Residents who don't get the call to participate in the phone survey are encouraged to complete the online survey which is set to launch in early 2023. Keep an eye out in the mail for a postcard to access the online survey. All participants who provide their feedback via the telephone survey or the online survey will be entered in a draw for a chance to win one of five smart thermostats!
For more information, please visit the NEER online engagement webpage.
About the Newmarket Energy Efficiency Retrofit (NEER) Initiative
The Community Energy Plan (approved in 2016) recommended establishing the NEER initiative to meet the CEP greenhouse gas reduction targets. In 2018, Newmarket started the feasibility study, followed by the completion of a Business Case presented to Council in September 2019. Council approved the NEER Business Case Final Report in June 2020 with direction to complete a detailed Business Plan.
In 2020, the Town of Newmarket applied for and received funding from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' (FCM) Community Efficiency Financing Program that is funding the development of the detailed business plan. The Business Plan will outline how to secure start-up capital for the NEER program.
For more information, please visit newmarket.ca/neer
About the Community Energy Plan
A Community Energy Plan (CEP) was adopted in 2016 and is an initiative developed by the municipality to reduce the community's net environmental impact. This will be achieved by introducing sustainable practices throughout a multitude of sectors including transportation, residential/non-residential and energy.
Newmarket's CEP is one of the first in Ontario. The Plan sets clear targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions with clear actions for achieving those results. Visit the Community Energy Plan webpage for more information.
